By Udi Onyile, Maryland
Chants are an integral part of what makes the delegates experience here at CONA a special one. From Washington DC’s ”Obama City” to California’s chant of waking up in anew committee, it will surely be one of the things that delegates will remember years after their time at the conference is finished.

Scott Cunningham, a former Texas delegate and current volunteer at CONA, can tell youthe ins and outs of his experiences with the chants here at CONA. “A good chant is simple and catchy”, Cunningham told the Blue Ridge Journal. The word around Blue Ridge is that Cunningham is the man to go to of you want to know delegations chants. Cunningham laughs at that statement, saying that delegates should “try to lower expectations” when it comes to his knowledge of the chants.

Even though he believes chants have loss some of their popularity over the years, Cunningham said without hesitation that the Thursday night banquet is the time to hear most chants. He even remembered his time as an advisor for South Carolina when his delegation just couldn’t seem to find a good chant. “We just kept turning them down,” he recalled. The state eventually began chanting “generic state chant” accompanied with clapping in protest to Cunnigham’s strict chant guidelines.

Of course, delegates have their favorites within their own delegations. Sam Leichenger from California loves when they do “The CALI sugar” chant. “It’s endearing; other states join in and it feels like a community.”

For Michaela Moses, Alice Jenkins, and Silvia Marin, picking a favorite from the New York delegation was hard. But the ‘love CONA’ chant to the tune of a Cheif Keef song was an agreed favorite. Chants are a part of what brings color to CONA. Whether it be from the California
delegation or Oklahoma, everyone has a favorite chants here at CONA that they love hearing. Which one is your favorite? Tweet us!